Date Released: May 11, 2012

Bitrate: Variable

Contributor

Jayson Greene is Senior Editor at Wondering Sound and a contributing writer and columnist at Pitchfork. His writing has also appeared in The New York Times, GQ,...more »

12.03.12

Ab-Soul, Control System

2012 | Label: TopDawg Ent. / TuneCore

Ab-Soul is the resident word-nerd of Black Hippy, the rap crew that includes the Dr. Dre-anointed young rap prince Kendrick Lamar and the brooding, heavy-lidded, ex-Crip leader Schoolboy Q. He’s easily the most cerebral of a fairly brainy crew, and on the ferociously excellent Control System, he produces an immersive, dark and wide-ranging piece of work that takes listeners to Saturn and Andromeda (“Pineal Gland”), sardonically salutes Obama as a “puppet” (“Terrorist Threat”), breaks our… read more »

Contributor

Jayson Greene is Senior Editor at Wondering Sound and a contributing writer and columnist at Pitchfork. His writing has also appeared in The New York Times, GQ,...more »

12.03.12

Ab-Soul, Control System

2012 | Label: TopDawg Ent. / TuneCore

Ab-Soul is the resident word-nerd of Black Hippy, the rap crew that includes the Dr. Dre-anointed young rap prince Kendrick Lamar and the brooding, heavy-lidded, ex-Crip leader Schoolboy Q. He’s easily the most cerebral of a fairly brainy crew, and on the ferociously excellent Control System, he produces an immersive, dark and wide-ranging piece of work that takes listeners to Saturn and Andromeda (“Pineal Gland”), sardonically salutes Obama as a “puppet” (“Terrorist Threat”), breaks our heart with a devastating first-person tale of young love and loss (“The Book of Soul”), puffs out some post-Tribe Called Quest weed clouds (“Bohemian Grove”) and oh, also finds room for a sex joke as goofy as “She got that magical vag/ Let me hocus poke.”